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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Remember in our early
writing classes we were taught to not be cliché, to use interesting
words and phrases to describe the world around us? Yeah, toss that
out the window for this discussion. Keyword strategies involve using
the same keywords over and over again so that search engines can
process your posts. Today's algorithms are very, very smart, and have
started to correctly process most metaphors and related terms the way
a human would. But for professional writers, our more obscure
metaphors do not translate.

Now this can technique can
also be used for a blog on writing, but I am going to tackle the more
elusive blog traffic we all want: readers.

Who is your perfect
reader?

I don't
want to hear any whining that you don't know who your reader is.
Please. As writers, we get into the heads of our characters with the
snap of our fingers. Do the same thing.

Who is
my perfect reader? (This is not meant to exclude readers who don't
fit this demographic, just gives me a target to shoot for. You might
have different “perfect readers” each book!)

For
CANCELLED:

My
reader has some education after high school, and she had a mother who
read romance novels, but she considers herself above the
“traditional” romance novels because she cut her reading chops on
the more modern, contemporary “chicklit” tales. She works, and
has to budget her money. She
has a family member that is screwed up and causes drama in her life.
She has had at least one serious relationship.

Her
favorite stores are Kohl's and
Target. She drives a foreign
made sedan. For fun, she reads on her ereader, and in her
group of friends, she's normally the one with plan or new thing
everyone must copy. She doesn't do forums, and her social media is
updated with her smart phone,
because she spends enough time in front of the computer at work. When
she comes home, she likes to unwind by reading, watching
reality TV, and she has a secret thing for Johnny
Depp. Like she owns every single movie he's ever made. On the
weekends, she wears jeans, but at work she has to wear
casual business clothes. She likes to cook, but also loves the
convenience of food made for her.
It's a luxury she indulges in more than she should if she wants to
get ahead in her savings.

So
that's my perfect reader, one I think would read Cancelled and
LOVE IT.

I love
“So You Think You Can Dance.” I typed that in as a keyword,
searched, and found a great, low competition keyword: SYTYCD videos.
Now here's what I can do. I can write up a blog post once a week
highlighting 3 favorites SYTYCD videos on Youtube with them embedded.
That's fun to me, and it gets searched 290 times a month in the U.S.
alone. Now, I would also put in some other keywords, like “so do
you think you can dance” which is searched 5,400 times a month and
also has low competition.

Going a
step further on my “platform” I could make a special video
trailer for Cancelled that somehow worked in So You Think You Can
Dance, such as a video that I think reminds me of a part in my book.
For example, I LOVE Season 4's Bleeding Love
by Mark and Chelsie, and it could easily be a video from Kellie's
point of view in my book.

Even a post every week or
two, over a few weeks would give me organic results. And I could pick
other shows that I like, too.

Johnny Depp

I
searched “Johnny Depp” and a result I immediately like is “mad
hatter johnny depp” which is searched 5,400 times a month and has
LOW competition. This is more of a creative type post idea. Mad
Hatter Johnny Depp Mondays. I could share the absurd, the funny, or
just play around with 6 words I have to turn into a story (flash
fiction that many authors like to write). But see how I incorporate a
keyword phrase? Linking to an image of Johnny Depp as a Mad Hatter
would help even more, and this is the kind of post shared on
Pinterest that would resonate well. Working with keywords ties into
everything! :)

Her phone, her car, and
her clothes

I
imagined what my reader uses. This could go a few ways. I could blog
about three great purse deals I find online that I think she'd like.
“Purse deals” is another low competition keyword phrase with
4-5,000 searches per month. Saturday's Shopping Spree: Purse Deals
gets TWO keyword phrases in there! “Shopping Spree” is searched
22,500 times in the US alone and has low competition. I could tie
this into the next section, too. Make it an interactive thing where
on the comments readers can share their great deals online in the
comments and I'll put them in the blog post. My friends and I all
LOVE to find great deals, but can't always spend the money. But if
you blog about them, you get the kudos for finding them.

My
reader's phone I could turn into a weekly syndicated post. I could go
out and find helpful articles on how to use iPhones, Android phones,
etc. and share little bits and link to the original article. This
helps my traffic, gives those sites a pingback, and helps my readers
get information they need.

Budgeting, Saving Money

Like
the above keywords, this is another “educational” type keyword.
“Money saving mom” is searched 49,500 times per month in the US
and also has Low competition. I searched “funny money saving ideas”
but that is only searched 39 times a month, so rather worthless. In
the suggestions, Google had in there “money saving mom.” Now,
that I could work with.

I
could make the stories funny, like failed attempts to save money. I
could write on serious things, like cutting the grocery bill. I could
share great restaurant deals, remember my reader likes to eat out.

I
know this is a lot to take in. But I hope you get the gist. Imagine
your reader, make your keyword lists. Search them in Google's Keyword
Tool and then choose 1-3 to make a regular feature on your blog. Make
sure it's something YOU enjoy writing about.

BIG BIG
NEWS, Micro-search engine optimization

Remember
how I have said over and over again that keywords alone will not make
or break your blog? Here's more proof:

When
I am logged into Google (my gmail account) and I search a term, in my
results are matches from the blogs and people I follow IN my social
media. Yes! So if you really get into the head of your reader, you
don't have to always worry if your taking on a highly competitive
keyword, because Google will share your content with your followers!

This
is all long-term blog audience building. Certainly, you can
accelerate the reach by tweeting and sharing your blogs. But the
basic building blocks of your blog should be there before you get
busy with a social media campaign. Make sure your blog is pleasing to
the eye (black text on light backgrounds) and that readers can easily
find information they need.

Oh,
and absolutely have a signature at the bottom of every blog post that
sells you and your book. :)

A robotics engineer asks his business partner to marry him, but a previous one-night stand is having his baby. CANCELLED is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble

WIP: STONE. Never up Mom's expectations, a clothing designer kicks "Mr. Right" to the curb.

Friday, June 1, 2012

The problems:

Email newsletters have notoriously low conversion rates for reader sites, even more for authors. Industry standards are well below 25% (mailchimp.com).

Clicks inside of email newsletters are even more abysmal.

The solution:

Test a new weekly publication that goes straight to a reader's ereader without charging the reader a subscription fee.

Although Amazon has experimented with a subscription type service for blogs and magazines, none of us have heard of any runaway success. If anyone knows of one, please share. But by and large, individual authors won't/don't have the time or resources to run a successful blog subscription service through Amazon's service.

Proposed: the eEKLY

The eEKLY is a weekly publication put out by an ereading community website, a publisher, or other group of authors with a similar marketing plan in mind. This electronic publication is made available in .mobi, .epub, and PDF so that readers can download or send the file straight to their Kindles, Nooks, or computer.

Benefits of the eEKLY

Links to books (and other products on affiliate sites) are hosted inside of the ereader so the reader has immediate access to a one-click buy environment.

Authors can use the eEKLY to give away a free copy (serialized over 3 to 4 weeks) in a qualified manner. No more thousands of downloads that who knows who will read? By serializing a "free" book, authors have access to their conversion rates of sampling, answering the question of how many readers who read the first section of your novel come back for more?

Serialized books through the eEKLY can foster discussion for a publisher or e-reading community as it taps naturally into a book club type setup, opening the door for direct author/reader interaction about the novel, because the community is on the same page with a novel at the same time.

By choosing other books to feature at the end of each section, including an author's other books and books in the same genre, there is an opportunity to humanize the "We Also Suggest" algorithm.

Readers receive a valuable publication, meaning there is content inside they WANT to open and read as opposed to an email newsletter that is 100% disposable.

Because the novel is serialized in 3-4 parts, readers will hold onto and possibly repeatedly reference the material inside each eEKLY.

Drawbacks of the eEKLY

Authors must be willing to serialize their novel, for free, with no expectation of royalties, up to 10,000 downloads or for 30 days (sites publishing the eEKLY would agree to take down the files 30 days from their release). Instead an archive file would be offered: a catalog of books that were featured that week.

Readers need training to sideload or send the file to their ereader. This is a great opportunity for authors involved in a specific eEKLY to talk to a reader about their ereader, but could also be a huge headache/cut down on reader adoption.

Eventually, involvement in the eEKLY would require a fee paid by the authors featured to compensate the editor for time compiling the files (There is no fee to be a part of the test, which is what this is).

So who wants in?

I am making a test prototype of the eEKLY (4 issues) for two ereader community sites, The-Cheap.net and eBookSwag.com. One of the books I am serializing for free is my own, but I am willing to serialize up 2 other books, and I can advertise books in each issue.

I am looking for up to 2 other titles to serialize (need word documents of manuscript and cover art to make ebook files of the eEKLY issues) that are romance, chicklit, contemporary fiction, or women's fiction oriented. There's nothing wrong with the other genres, and eventually, if the test is successful, there will be multiple genres for the eEKLY so that the "Also Bought" type algorithms are more humanly influenced.

I am looking for up to 15 additional titles per issue, for a total of 60 other books that I can feature. I will need an image of your cover (longest side 200 px) and the ASIN. I can match up and find the book on Nook if it's available there. If your book is on Nook too, first priority will be given to those titles because The-Cheap.net is strong Nook community.

If you are serializing your novel, you agree to allow each "chunk" to be made available for no more than 30 days or up to 10,000 downloads (as calculated by clicks).

What do you get?

Test out a new innovative spin to the reader newsletter housed within an e-reader for free.

Full disclosure of the clicks (Amazon) and # of downloads each eEKLY issue receives, as tracked through link clicks.

About Me

Raised in Virginia Beach, VA, I now live where the Navy sends us! The last eight years of building a life with my best friend have been fantastic, and have flown right on by! My kids keep me busy, and young. I've spent the last 5 years writing, first non-fiction articles, and now novels. My debut novel, CANCELLED is now available as an ebook and paperback.

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Disclosure of Affiliate Status

Elizabeth Ann West is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.